? [AKA: QUESTION MARK]

Well first of all it's difficult to rate this new effort by Neal Morse, cause He has been composing a range of melodic tunes under a "Christian" inspiration for a few years and now it seems it's his definitive pinnacle from the artistic point of view.but unfortunately -in the same time- if you dig into it, the present album is not diverse in comparison to the music ideas He developed with Spock's Beard in the album "Snow": this time there are some guest stars as clever guitarists (firstly Steve Hackett, then Roine Stolte), with the contribution of the fertile keyboardist Jordan Rudess, all together participating in such an epic concept, whose main biblical theme is the "Temple of the Living God". Actually it's a sort of recurring step of his solo career , focused on a meditative perception of the general sense of life - in a kind of "immanentism"- between philosophy and religion, but with the priority of this latter which often emerges.it's not easy to perceive it , but the Christian lyrics help the listener to understand the music plot. Talking about the immediate harmonic solutions inside twelve tunes you know what you're buying, but you have to regard that nobody can invent something completely new or innovative in the world of music (in the world of art generally.) and Neal Morse is simply confirming his music background here! The final biblical conclusion of the main concept - regarding the Living Temple of God - is probably the most interesting tune of the whole opera, but you cannot forget the talented hand by Rudess in track # 11, the guitar approach of track # 3 and also the pretty chorus inside "Another world", some of the most interesting features of the concept to be remarked by considering the whole job by Neal.

You hate it or love it, without compromises!!